On the margins of nature

THE untidy and littered state of our road margins and railway lines is often criticised, but there are ways of dealing with the problem through the use of nature.

The excellent BBC Countryfile TV programme recently featured a project in Devon under which wild flowers and plants are being grown on roadside. The local council is currently managing 1,000 acres of wild verges. They offer a natural home for flora. Also, cars can help seeds to blow along and eventually take root. Orchids, primroses and other flowers are growing successfully. The Devon council is looking after a 13,000km network of roads and is cutting only the first metre of verge to allow growth take place.

Here, similar to what has happened in Britain, many of the flowers and plants that were common, especially on wet land, have vanished. It started in Britain during World War Two when there was widespread tillage to provide food for the population and studies show that only 2% of pre-war wild meadows now remain there.